The effects of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act

By steve | Sep 25, 2009
Money
Image by TW Collins via Flickr

I have been playing in a quite a few events as a member of the Twitter Poker Tour group. I also started playing more games run by RailBirds.Com and their sub groups.  I have even started playing in the online events of the American Poker Players, a social group of the American Poker Invitational group. I also try to play at least two or three hours a day of cash games online.

I try to sandwich this in between home like, work, and blogging. For hobbies, I like to read: poker, science fiction, adventure and mystery novels. I do a lot of thinking and studying about poker. Probably I talk and think about it more than I play it.

One of the problems I am finding about playing online is that it is getting harder and harder to get funds to and from the poker sites.

Just recently I opened a new business checking account and in the first month’s statement was a large notice about customers not using the bank to transfer funds to and from online poker sites. If we were doing it, we must stop or change banks. Because of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, the US government can fine and punish banks that allow this kind of activity.  Personally, I don’t think the government has that right and should not be involved in what ordinary citizens want to do with their money. They are forcing us to take extreme measures.

Most of the pokier players that  I know are law abiding, tax paying citizens. Until congress passes laws making online poker legal in the US, they are forcing us to find new and creative ways to keep playing. For myself, I am looking at off shore banking that have no ties with the US. I am not doing this to avoid paying taxes, should I ever start to earn money playing poker, but I want to be able to play and the off shore banks seem to be a way to do this. Everything I have read says that care should be taken if I go this route because these banks are not governed by US laws.

I don’t intend to have a large amount of money tied up with them, I just want to be able to either transfer my money to an online site and transfer my profits back and eventually get a check that I can legally deposit into my regular US based bank accounts.

Do you think that the government is wrong on how they treat online poker?

Do you have a method of either depositing or getting your winnings back that is safe and secure from seizure by the government?

What are you doing to change this situation?

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  • http://www.aintluck.com/ Markus

    I totally agree with you. What ordinary everyday US citizens do with their money should be their business not the government. The UIGEA is an out of touch piece of legislation and nothing our forefathers would have agreed with. What a disgrace to the US constitution.

  • http://jackgck.blogspot.com/ Jack

    What scares me is talk about legalizing online poker and then taxing it. What kind of BS is that? Poker is a negative sum game (money gets sucked out of the player pool), in which you have to be good enough to beat your opposition, AND the rake. In the end the rake is the large winner, and only a few % of players end up in the black. Why should the government get to tax those winning players and further ruin their win rate?

    The government should tax the rooms (FTP, PS, Cake, etc) directly.. not the players who win. That's like two taxes. Rake and government tax. No thanks.

    Keep it in the legal grey if it means players aren't taxed to play A GAME!

    Stupid government :(

  • stevebrogan

    Until we get our own US based online companies that the US regulates and taxes, there seems to be fewer options for us US players find alternative ways to deposit and withdraw funds to play poker. I am willing to pay taxes if I could earn enough to be taxed. I agree that the rake should be tax enough as it amounts to up to 10% in most small parts and less when pots get larger. Thanks again for sharing your comments.

  • stevebrogan

    Until we get our own US based online companies that the US regulates and taxes, there seems to be fewer options for us US players find alternative ways to deposit and withdraw funds to play poker. I am willing to pay taxes if I could earn enough to be taxed. I agree that the rake should be tax enough as it amounts to up to 10% in most small parts and less when pots get larger. Thanks again for sharing your comments.

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